ArticleEthics & human research
Ethics of Adaptive Designs for Randomized Controlled Trials.
Article in Ethics & human research. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Adaptive versus fixed designs in confirmatory clinical trials: centering the choice on ethics.Clinical trials (London, England) · 2026Article
- Considerations raised during the regulatory and ethics review of platform clinical trials in infectious diseases.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2026Article
- Understanding how the informed consent process influences the decision to participate in an adaptive platform trial: A scoping review.PloS one · 2026Article
- Exploring Bayesian adaptive designs in multi-arm randomized controlled trials with a patient preference arm.Journal of biopharmaceutical statistics · 2025Article
- Breaking Barriers: Enhancing Access, Equity, and Efficiency in Interstitial Lung Disease Clinical Trials.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2025Article
- Advancing Doctoral and Postdoctoral International Bioethics Training Programs Supported by the D43 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty Mechanism.Journal of empirical research on human research ethics : JERHRE · 2025Article
- Characterization of medical device randomized controlled trials with adaptive designs.Journal of comparative effectiveness research · 2025Article
- The Impact of COVID-19 on RNA Therapeutics: A Surge in Lipid Nanoparticles and Alternative Delivery Systems.Pharmaceutics · 2024Review
- The critical need to accelerate cerebral palsy research with consumer engagement, global networks, and adaptive designs.Journal of pediatric rehabilitation medicine · 2024Article
- Towards achieving transnational research partnership equity: lessons from implementing adaptive platform trials in low- and middle-income countries.Wellcome open research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Over recent decades, adaptive trial designs have been used more and more often for clinical trials, including randomized controlled trials (RCTs). This rise in the use of adaptive RCTs has been accompanied by debates about whether such trials offer ethical and methodological advantages over traditional, fixed RCTs. This study examined how experts on clinical trial methods and ethics believe that adaptive RCTs, compared to fixed ones, affect the ethical character of clinical research. We conducted in-depth interviews with 17 researchers from bioethics, epidemiology, biostatistics, and/or medical backgrounds. While about half believed that adaptive trials are more complex and may thus threaten autonomy, these respondents also expressed that this challenge is not insurmountable. Most respondents expressed that efficiency and potential for participant benefit were the main justifications for adaptive trials. There was tension about whether adaptive randomization in response to increasing information disrupts clinical equipoise, with some respondents insisting that uncertainty still exists and therefore clinical equipoise is not disrupted. These findings suggest that further discussion is needed to increase the awareness and utility of these study designs.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.